There was an article published a couple weeks back that announced the giant tunnel boring machine for the long overdue Second Avenue Subway has completed the connection from 63rd to 96th Street:
LINK. Now the stations just have to be built along with the infrastructure which will connect the Q subway from its cross midtown path to the newly bored tunnel . New Second Avenue stations will include 72nd Street, 86th Street and East Harlem's southern border at 96th Street. This is all part of Phase One which should be complete and ready to go in the next five years. Tunnels actually already exist from 99th to 105th Street and from 110th and 120th Street (when the project had previously halted decades ago) so the next phase might take a little less time to get everything connected to East 125th. The full timeline for the history of the Second Avenue line can be seen here:
LINK. Click on map to enlarge.
How far across 125th does the line extend? It would be brilliant if they could extend it to meet up with the 2/3 on Lenox, or even further to the A/D. Anybody know if that is a possibility?
ReplyDeleteCorrection: the new station in Phase 1 will be at 72nd, not 76th.
ReplyDeleteChris: the planned terminus of Phase 2 at 125th Street is to be built below the current 4/5/6 station, so it'll curve across 125th to meet Lexington. It will be hard to navigate our walkers and wheelchairs down so deep, and those of us here today who are still alive when its built will need them. Yes, parts of it were already dug, but there's no money to do the work at this time. Phase 1 is the only funded section!
It'd be a great idea to extend it across to the A/D at St Nick, as it could connect into those lines (it can't connect into the numbered lines-- different size trains) but that's probably a fantasy. I have more faith in the MTA being able to roll out more impressive "Select Bus" kind of services with bus-only lanes and pre-board payment than building expensive new subways.
Chris: Anything is possible, but considering that the MTA still doesn't have any committed funding for boring the segment from 96th St to 125th (i.e., to join with the Lex Ave line as part of the "Phase II" construction), I wouldn't hold my breath for them to take it any farther west than is in the plan.
ReplyDeleteIn my view, what 125th St, 116th St, and all the other major cross-town thoroughfares could use most happens to be the feature they were designed to have in the first place: streetcars.
Street cars! Yes!
ReplyDeleteOh wow, I thought the whole thing was going to be wrapped up by 2016! Agreed, street cars would be awesome!
ReplyDeleteAccording to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_streetcar_lines_in_Manhattan), there were crosstown streetcar lines at 59th St, 86th St (i.e., just one crossing the park), 110th St, 116th St, 125th St, 138th St, 145th St, 163rd St, 167th St, and 207th St.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention that the first streetcar line in America was the New York and Harlem Railroad, which carried passengers from downtown starting in 1832 (service extended to Harlem and beyond starting in 1837).
Like just about everywhere else in the country, they tore out the tracks and replaced them with buses. Among the worst acts of "progress" ever, I'd say:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_Streetcar_Scandal